Modelling the Marine Environment

We are internationally renowned for our expertise in modelling the marine environment and we host one of the largest and most experienced marine ecosystem modelling groups in the world. Our models enable us to gain a greater understanding of the dynamics and potential change of marine processes and systems, and we continually refine and build new models to address the emerging challenges facing the global ocean and society that depends upon it.

There are increasing calls from policy makers and ocean users to make projections of how the ocean may change and in turn affect the resources the ocean provides. Combining ecological, physical and chemical understanding into dynamic models of the ocean provides us with tools with which we can assess the vulnerabilities and opportunities of marine systems and promote good management.

We work at a range of scales encapsulating global earth-system models, regional seas and local systems such as estuaries and bays. Our research covers issues from climate change and ocean acidification, including mitigation to offshore energy, aquaculture, fisheries and good environmental status.

We collaborate with colleagues internally, nationally and across the globe applying models to a wide range of pressing questions, developing new methods to safeguard the sustainability of the ocean and increasing our understanding of how it works.

Making a difference

Our models are used to understand the implications and risks of global change and human activity and produce decision support tools that can be used by policy makers and regulators to inform choices over the optimum use of natural resources and the marine environment.

A new study with PML authors supported through the Marine Ecosystems Research Programme was published in Marine Policy this week, highlighting the value of increasing the contribution of shelf-seas community and ecosystem models to policy development and management.

June saw the kick-off meeting of the £5m Marine Ecosystem Research Programme (MERP), jointly funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).